Fisheye projection of moving images into dome theaters is a well established field dating back to the Atmospherium, a fulldome projection system designed at the University of Nevada-Reno in 1960. These early systems used film with images captured using a fisheye capture lens and were the precursors to OmniMax theaters that dominated the field for over 25 years. Projection systems are discussed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,934,259, 3,953,111 and 4,070,098. In the late 1990s, it became possible to use digital projectors rather than film. With that came the ability to project real-time imagery as well a linear (movie) playback.
Milton Laikin, in Lens Design 85 (Marcel Dekker, Inc. 1991), observed that fisheye lenses tend toward an equal angular pixel distribution or a linear relationship between field angle and image height known as a f-theta or f-θ in the field of optical design. Such systems are discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,762,413. As graphics hardware has progressed exact adherence to f-θ has become less important. Graphics hardware is capable of real time correction of arbitrary distortions.
There is a need for improved projection systems and methods to take advantage of modern graphics hardware.